SALT LAKE CITY – Utah’s Women, Infants and Children program (WIC) is re-opening, at least temporarily.

The program received $2.5 million in emergency funding from the United States Department of Agriculture. Staff will return as soon as possible, and all clinics are expected to be open by noon tomorrow, Oct. 4. The emergency funding is expected to keep the program open through October.

"This is welcome news for the 66,000 moms, babies, and children we serve, especially those who didn’t have food vouchers for the month of October,” said Utah WIC Director Chris Furner in a press release. “Unfortunately, we’re not entirely out of the woods. If Washington can’t reach an agreement to end the shutdown by the end of this month, we’ll likely wind up in the same position we found ourselves in earlier this week.”

The program has been largely closed since Tuesday due to the government shutdown.